Posted on 04/03/2003 5:58:24 AM PST by Theodore R.
Former Rep. Teno Roncalio dies at 87
By Jessica Lowell Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE – He was a rough and tumble man who loved opera. He could cite the masters and talk to anyone from any background.
He was born the eighth of nine children to Italian immigrant parents in Rock Springs, and in 1978, when he wrapped up his career as an elected official, he bid farewell to Washington, D.C., after serving five terms as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He was Teno Roncalio, and he died Sunday at the age of 87 from congestive heart failure.
“I thought he was one of the most genuine people I have ever met,” state Sen. Jayne Mockler, D-Cheyenne, said Tuesday. “He was one of the most genuinely sincere political figures in the state, and he did it for all the right reasons.”
Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Roncalio was among the best of what Wyoming has to offer.
“He will be sorely missed. I will remember him as a man of honor and dignity, one who always had the best interests of the state at heart. My sincere condolences go out to his friends and family,” Freudenthal said.
Becky Costantino, chairwoman of the Wyoming Republican Party, and a resident of Rock Springs, said Roncalio was certainly well thought of in the state.
“There’s a lot of pride for him over here, and he was certainly and effective legislator,” she said. “He loved Wyoming.”
“He was one of the giants in Wyoming political history in the latter half of the 20th century,” Kathy Karpan said. “He was a real American success story.”
Karpan went to work for Roncalio in 1964; now she’s an attorney in private practice in Cheyenne.
“He used to say, ‘I went from bootblack to banker,’” Karpan said Tuesday.
By 1964, Roncalio had already distinguished himself in a number of ways.
He had attended the University of Wyoming, and then left Wyoming to work for U.S. Sen. Joseph C. O’Mahoney, D-Wyo., in Washington, D.C.
World War II interrupted his time at the law school at the Catholic University of America when he enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army in December 1941.
By the following year, he was commissioned as infantry officer. He participated in a number of campaigns, earning the Silver Star for gallantry in action during the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach at Normandy.
He returned to Wyoming, finished law school at the University of Wyoming, went into private practice in Cheyenne and was later elected deputy prosecuting and county attorney in Laramie County.
His political life took off from there.
“In 1958, he was the state Democratic chairman, when we put together one of the most successful slates,” Karpan said. “It was the second greatest electorate victory in state history.”
Karpan said Roncalio also was key in the nomination of John F. Kennedy at the 1960 Democratic National Convention, convincing the members of the Wyoming delegation to support Kennedy if Wyoming’s vote could put him over the top.
“That was the last national convention where the outcome was in doubt,” Karpan said, noting that Roncalio had a tremendous relationship with the Kennedys.
While in Congress, he voted on some of the most significant programs in the 1960s and 1970s, including Medicare and Medicaid, civil rights and fair housing.
“Teno was really part of some of the most monumental legislation of the 1970s,” Karpan said. His support helped create areas like the Washakie wilderness area and push the Trans-Alaska Pipeline project.
“He might have been the last Wyoming representative to Congress who was able to advocate for the environmental and energy agendas,” she said.
One of the things he should always be remembered for is stopping Project Wagonwheel, she said.
“The Atomic Energy Commission planned to detonate five nuclear devices in tight rock formations in Sublette County to free the natural gas trapped in the rocks,” she said.
At the time, federal officials wanted to harness atomic energy for non-military uses.
Roncalio made two runs at stripping the funding from the project. He failed both times, but the vote was so close the second time, she said, the Atomic Energy Commission dropped the whole idea.
But far away from Washington, his influence was felt more personally in business and in the lives of other politicians. In private life, Roncalio helped found three banks in Cheyenne and Gillette and was active in community events.
Mockler said he went into politics for all the right reasons.
“He did it for the people, he did it to help move the state forward, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of personal self-motivation,” she said. “He was truly a statesman, and you don’t see that that often.”
And he made time to answer even basic questions for people like her, Mockler said.
“The true measure of the man,” Mockler said, “is that 25 years after he retired from an active political life, we still remember what he did.”
Is that the last Wyoming Democrat then?
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